


après la mort, la vie de nouveau

by Kawa (fandomonymous)



Category: Disco Elysium (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kim's skills have different names than Harry's that's just sense, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22209073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomonymous/pseuds/Kawa
Summary: AU: a Harry that pursued a different dream. His path will manage to cross Kim's at the Whirling, anyway.(Work in progress, updated sporadically.)
Relationships: Harry Du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 57





	après la mort, la vie de nouveau

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to Disco(rd) Elysium for being so supportive. 
> 
> Particular thanks to the folks who helped brainstorm this chapter and helped make and name the alternate Skills:
> 
> 'Hobo Cop'  
> 'A Speed Freaks Stan'  
> '"ace's high" p.t. sharpie'  
> 'Gaith | Hardie Boy'
> 
> I can't guarantee updates will come regularly, but I'll do my best. <3

A sticky-hot day; humidity best described as "unreasonable". Kim is sitting in a cramped booth, watching traffic. There is a tiny electric fan atop a small radio doing its best effort, but really not doing much, as sweat threatens to make his glasses slip off. Other than the occasional car going by, there is no other sound - the radio is off.

These traffic details are what's known as 'default duty'. It's what happens on a slow day in the precinct. It's the  _ fucking worst _ .

Reasoning: Having reading material during this kind of downtime is a smart thing to do. Keeps me busy.

Mechanics: Yeah, since I can't do much just yet, as much as twirling this pen in my hand is soothing. 

Memory: Be careful with the pen. It's our first  _ nice _ fountain pen, with our meager savings. 

Libido: Lucky us, today's reading material is  _ Athletes of Revachol: World Games Edition _ . 

Trivia: Knowing about current events is important for a cop. The World Games are happening  _ right now _ , and who knows what conversations we'll have to have about Revachol's delegation!

Camaraderie: Cop in  _ training _ . We're still in juvenile division. Because no one is taking us seriously, and so no one is processing our paperwork to transfer, even though we have  _ three _ years of service in good standing, and never really wanted to work with juveniles in the first place. Ugh.

Libido: And knowing about perfect, toned bodies? Honed to the highest level, for their sport? 

Speedfreak: Hey, maybe we'll learn something from the interviews. How to train, how to eat. Cops don't have to be quite as agile as athletes, but it helps!

Libido: Or maybe we'll just ogle at  _ all of these incredible men _ . I think it's the latter, yeah? Yeah?

Kim sighs, and turns the page. 

_ Athletes of Revachol: World Games Edition _ : An exclusive interview with the captain of Revachol's Athletics delegation, Harrier du Bois! 

[Look at the picture.]

Headshot: An incredible jaw, the start of some mutton chops, a trimmed beard. Some chest hair peeking past the top of his track suit. A strange half-smirk that he clearly thinks is sexy and clever. Bright eyes, with a hint of… Brilliance? Madness?

Connection: It's both. You have to be, for that lifestyle. For that singlehanded dedication. That willingness to work yourself to the brink, to be the best in the world. 

[Look at the stat block.]

Trivia: Not a stat block, this isn't Wirrâl. It's "box copy". 

Memory: Your ex, Andrew, teaching you about graphic design and layout, lessons from his internship at  _ Beautiful Apartments of Insulinde _ . Some things don't leave you, even though you've been over that for a few years now. 

Libido: This guy's hotter, anyway. 

Box copy: 

Please call him: Harry  
Known for: shotput World Record, set at World Championship '33: 22.81 m  
Events for Vesper-Messina '34: Shotput, Decathlon, 400m, 100m hurdles, 4 x 400m relay (anchor), 4 x 100m relay (anchor). 

Trivia: The final leg of a relay is known as the "anchor". It's for the best and most experienced team member. 

Connection: That seems like a lot of events, but I don't know what's normal for a pro athlete of that stature.

Box copy: Year of birth: '07

Reasoning: 27 years old. Just a year older than you. Prime time for a professional athlete's career. Old enough to be considered experienced, young enough to be competitive.

Box copy: Residence: Central Jamrock.

Reasoning: Not far at all. Not the best neighborhood, but not the worst; it's one you know well.

Memory: Because, of course, of a bar in that neighborhood, The Drake. One of the few places in Revachol a gay man can get a non-alcoholic drink and make wooden attempts at flirting that have a snowball's chance in hell. You'd know. 

Libido: But look at that lovely, lovely fur. Could you  _ imagine _ stumbling into him in The Drake, Kim? Could you  _ imagine _ finding out his...preferences? That chest hair against your own skin? What do you think he smells like?

Control: We are on the JOB dude, don't do this to the poor guy.

Libido: We're  _ bored at work _ and haven't gotten laid in  _ ages  _ what do you WANT from me, it's my DAMN JOB to make sure he has some COMPANIONSHIP in his life which you all have been SLACKING ON THANK YOU VERY MUCH -

Control: Ugh. We can't deal with you right now, and you know that. Simmer down.

[Read the interview.]

Polygraph: Accurate enough, but mostly generic drivel,  _ datu _ .

Trivia: Okay, Polygraph, we get it, we know the Seolite for "Lord" and literally no other words in the language.

Memory: And we only know it because it was the name of the new card type for that one Suzeranity expansion. 

Speedfreak: Part of his training regimen is that he runs everywhere, even just across his house, and pokes through every container he finds. Calls it the "Jamrock Shuffle". Weird as hell, but he claims that by having a "faster baseline speed", sprints are made easier. 

Debate: The interview is meant to be generically inspiring to children, but just as Speedfreak pointed out, this Harry is making it... interesting.

Harry: My magical hands will guide the shotput, and I'll tell you how I know. It speaks to me sometimes, the ball! Or my hands! A lot of things speak to me sometimes, actually. But usually they help! They tell me about the wind and people's moods and my own heartbeat. My advice is to treat your inner voices with kindness and sincerity - they are all trying to tell you something important.

Debate: ...huh. An interesting take on "believe in yourself". What a strange man. 

Sensory and Libido, simultaneously: There's also pictures!

[Look at the pictures]

Pictures: On the track, in training. Intense concentration. Head to toe in FALN's newest streetwear.

Trivia: They sponsor him, of course. Above and beyond sponsoring Revachol's Olympic delegation. He's the face of some of their ads.

Libido: Drops of sweat on his forehead, on his triceps. They look delicious.

Connection: It's glamorized for the magazine, but it's clearly very hard work, spending one's whole self on honing the body and mind for competition.

Pictures: Also, interestingly, leaning against a prototype Coupris Kineema. The strange half-smirk works here, an expression of confidence and maybe flirtation. The blurb nearby says it's was given to him as part of his World Championship winnings last year. The car is a beautiful dark blue, and has glistening chrome spinner rims on it.

Panache:  _ Devastatingly _ cool. Especially those rims. You've wanted a car like that forever. It's hard to believe they made something better than LUM's Fevre, but yeah, they totally did.

Mechanics: An incredible vehicle. There's a reason the RCM has just ordered a dozen. Top speed of 180 kilometres an hour. 

Memory: We were reading  _ Car Enthusiast _ yesterday which had a review of it. 

Camaraderie: Just a bit darker than RCM's blue, and no white stripe. A clever way to have a blue car in Jamrock without it looking quite like police livery.

Reasoning: And terribly expensive, 45  _ thousand _ real, more than you'd see in a year. But a triviality for FALN. 

Libido:  _ You'd _ look good with your back pushed against that, that's how hot it is. And  _ him _ , all power and sinew and confidence? I don't even need to tell you.

Kim puts down the magazine and turns on the radio. 

Commentator: TODAY IN VESPER-MESSINA '34, TRAGEDY STRIKES ON THE SHOTPUT FIELD.

Debate: Clipped, to the point. Prerecorded, but only hours ago.

Commentator: HARRIER DU BOIS, REVACHOL ATHLETICS CAPTAIN, HITS MARTINE H. VANDERBILT, HEAD OF THE WORLD GAMES ORGANIZING COMMITTEE AND WIFE OF FALN CEO CHRISTOPHER VANDERBILT V IN THE VIEWER'S BOX WITH HIS FINAL SHOTPUT THROW. THIS HAS DISQUALIFIED DU BOIS FROM FURTHER COMPETITION. 

MRS. VANDERBILT IS IN THE HOSPITAL IN CRITICAL CONDITION.

WE TAKE YOU NOW TO A PRESS CONFERENCE HELD BY REVACHOL ATHELTICS.

Connection: Oh  _ hell _ . 

Control: Even I'm not sure how someone would handle that. Let alone in public, so soon. 

Connection: Do you really want to listen to this? 

[Keep the radio on.]

Journalist: Mr. Du Bois, what happened?

Harry: IT COMES. IT BRINGS ILL TIDINGS. SHE WOULD HAVE BROUGHT DOOM TO US ALL.

Polygraph: Even through the tinny speaker, even never having heard Harry speak in reality, you know - this is not how he is supposed to sound. The tone is almost inhuman, dark, forboding. 

Memory: You heard a  _ fantastique  _ radio play a few months ago, that used a similar voice for an Old God from the depths. 

Journalist: What could you possibly mean, Mr. Du Bois?

Harry: SHE WISHED TO HASTEN IT. THE GLOAMING. AS DID HE. IT WILL COME - OF COURSE IT WILL COME - BUT IT MUST BE STOPPED. FOR THE FATE OF US ALL HANGS IN THE BALANCE. 

Silence. Darker than before, somehow. 

Harry: Oh. Oh god. What did I just say.

Polygraph: A completely different voice, see? This is the Harry the world knows. Or almost.

Debate: No. It's a Harry without any of the confidence you saw in the magazine. 

Connection: It's a Harry that has lost faith in his own abilities. In the world. But how, but what…

Reasoning: I cannot even fathom. 

Harry: Oh. Oh no. The magic has turned on me. It went bad, or wrong. It's all my fault. It's all my fault and everything will fall apart and I'm sorry I'm sorry -

The sound of a sudden shuffling.

Sensory: Shoes on a plastic table?

Analytics: Standing on it. 

Harry: I AM A BAD ANIMAL AND I DO NOT DESERVE THIS LIFE!

More chaotic sounds. 

Analytics: The table being knocked over. Harry running. The journalists and his coaches running behind.

Connection: I think we just heard the beginning of the end of Harry du Bois. Poor soul.

[Turn off the radio.]

**Author's Note:**

> Content notes:
> 
> Seolite is Tagalog, because I said so and it's my AU.
> 
> Kim's skills will not match Harry's one to one, and there's at least one skill with completely different properties that outright replaces its 'counterpart'.
> 
> EDITED 15 Jan 2020 since I reread some Thought Cabinet bits and realized I didn't have to invent an Olympics equivalent, it's already alluded to in "Jamais Vu". Doesn't really change the content, just gets it more aligned to the canon.


End file.
